A battery pack for powering a camcorder has a connector plate for releasably securing the pack to a camcorder and/or a corresponding charger. The plate includes locking formations and connection points which are designed to engage with complementary formations and connection points on the camcorder and charger so that the battery pack can be secured onto either the camcorder or the charger and electrical connection be thereby established. While camcorders and chargers of the same brand usually have the same arrangement of locking formations and connection points, different makes of camcorders and chargers often have different arrangements of the locking formations and connection points and ways have therefore been devised to provide a single battery pack which is compatible with more than one make of camcorder and charger.
Two-way battery packs are known which are compatible with two different types of camcorders and chargers with type of camcorder and charger having a different arrangement of locking formations and connection points. The formations and connection points on the connector plate of the two-way battery pack are so designed that while the battery pack can be secured onto and thus be electrically connected with a first type of camcorder or charger, it can also be secured onto and electrically connected with a second type of camcorder or charger when it is rotated through 180.degree. about the axis perpendicular to the plane containing the connector plate.
There are known to be at least three different types of camcorder and charger, each having a different arrangement of locking formations and connecting points. An obvious shortcoming of the existing two-way battery packs is that they cannot be used with more than two types of camcorder and charger.